Mental
by Kid A1
Summary: (chapter 8 up) #18 has gone insane...and it's up to Kuririn to LITERALLY go inside her head to save her. Not yr average K/18, based on the movie The Cell.
1. Hell

Mental Chapter 01: Hell 

A DBZ fanfiction by LadyRivka

A/N: I got the idea for this fic from the Jennifer Lopez movie "The Cell", but I decided to put Kuririn in Jennifer's place and #18 in the psychopathic killer's place, and Bulma (of course!) as the scientist. Things will deviate slightly from the movie (of course), as I have to take characterization and such into account. Enjoy!-Rivka

It was two months after the destruction of Cell. Two. Long. Months.

Chichi was pregnant again, and everyone else was trying to make do…

Except for #18. She didn't know where her brother was, she didn't know where she was, for that matter. Lost in a sea of nothingness. 

Sometimes her nightmares would wake her from her short sleep (cyborgs didn't need much sleep, maybe a "power nap" a day), and create an irrevocable sense of panic.

Something nagged at her. A voice deep inside. It screamed that she had to fulfill her programming, to kill. The sweet sound of blood oozing from severed veins.  It would take away her pain, resolve her conflicts.

But who?

The only name on her mind, the man who had wished the bombs out of both her and her brother's bodies. She was reluctant, but it nagged at her, gnawing her mind away like a mangy dog at a ham-bone.

_Kuririn._

The name repeated itself a million times over in her brain, like a reflex. She had to kill him, damn it, she had to. She had to look out for herself and not some measly human.

She knew where he was, she had visited his residence before.

The Kame House.

And off she flew form her makeshift home in the middle of a campground to that place.

The trouble was, her prey wasn't there.

Ah, well.

No, where the hell is he? I need to know. You need to get him.

Shut up! Juuhachigoo hated these mental conversations that she had with herself; at points they got unnerving.

Then she sensed him.

He was at Capsule Corporation for some reason or other.

She needed her blood. NOW.

And off she went…

Bulma was testing a new device with Kuririn as her subject.

The short fellow was confused by all this high-tech gadgetry of Bulma's. "Say, what's this thing again?"

"It's a mental transmitter. What it does is scan your brain, seeking out the neural connections. From there, it re-creates the inside of a person's mind, and, via this feedback loop, enables one person to travel inside the mind of the other. If I don't get a Nobel Prize for this, I don't know what those jerks in Stockholm are thinking!"

"Say that in English, Bulma?" Kuririn scratched his head.

"You can journey inside other people's heads. It'll revolutionize psychology and psychiatry."

"Oh."  
  


"Give it a go?"

"Sure."

But before Kuririn and Bulma could get strapped inside of the machine, #18 lept through the window and pounced onto Kuririn, not minding the trail of broken glass in her wake.

Ha ha, got you, my delicious prey. #18 smirked as Kuririn's head slowly turned around, his face contorted with fear.

"Now, now, relax, it'll be less painful for you if you relax," she cooed.

"What the hell…?" screamed Bulma. "Juuhachigoo-san, you know better!"

"Oh, do I?"

"You-you were n-nice to him last week. Let him go before I call the police!"

"Ha. Don't make me laugh, Bulma." #18 gripped Kuririn's neck even harder. The former monk struggled to breathe.

He managed to choke out, "Something's…wrong…with her…"

Yes, thought Bulma. Maybe her cybernetic portions need re-adjustment or tune-up. She got out her malfunction detector she used on her lab robots, but nothing was wrong.

It was purely psychological, or perhaps neurological.

A perfect chance for the machine to start working.

Bulma ran to get some tranquilizer for the cyborg, but she wouldn't know how effective it might be, so she got the largest dose recommended for a person of her height and weight, ran behind her (as she was preoccupied with Kuririn), and injected it into her arm.

After a few seconds, she let go of the gasping Kuririn and fell on her back, asleep.

"Kuririn-san, are you OK?"

He coughed a bit, and then said, "Yeah."

An awkward silence.

"What was wrong with her?"

"Psychological disturbance. My detector showed no cybernetic abnormalities. And I'm betting it is psychological…wouldn't YOU go crazy if you got absorbed by a monster like Cell?"

"I guess so." Kuririn got up. "Now what do you want me to do?"

Bulma patted the beds of the device. "You carry her here, put her down, and hop in. I'll do the rest."

END CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2: Kuririn in the strange reality of Juuhachigoo's mind.

A/N: How'd you like it? Any comments, suggestions, things you'd like to see? Click the Review box!! -Rivka


	2. Inside

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Mental

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02: Inside

A DBZ fanfiction by LadyRivka

A/N: Thanks for everyone who has reviewed so far, especially Aerith Gainesborough. Thanks ever so much for the compliments on the first chapter, girl, you ROCK!!! And to anyone else who's bored after (or during, whichever) this fic, Aerith's story "College, Coffee, and Crushes" is a must-read for Marron-chan fans; heck, even Marron-HATERS may like this fic. Aerith gives Marron this Everywoman quality that pulls you in and forces you to see things through her eyes. ^^

Enough of my blabbing, on with my story…

-Rivka

Bulma hopped right to her task of hooking up the EEG's (A/N: electroencepalograms, they monitor brain waves and other cerebral activity) to the two subject's heads, turned a few switches here, a few levers there, and placed a microchip in each one of the subject's ears. A light humming sound could be heard as the two subjects reached optimum brain-wave patterns; a red vinyl sheet, looking eerily like an unzipped body bag, was placed over both subjects. 

Bulma whispered to Kuririn, "If you need to get out because of endangerment to your life, please notify me."

"How?"

"Ask, and your brain waves will change. This EEG is very sensitive."

"Oh." Kuririn breathed heavily under the red sheet, and tried to get his composure before the procedure.

His brain waves having been restored to optimum by his relaxation, Bulma continued.

The mattresses of the two beds were brought to near-ceiling level, to better access the computerized resonance imaging system. A pair of wide laser beams came down over both Kuririn's and #18's heads, scanning their brains, down to the last synapse. Bulma worked with the computerized images and fed them back to the microchips in their ear canals. 

Kuririn was still nervous, but if it was for Juuhachigoo's good, he couldn't argue…

--

Kuririn found himself in what looked like the inside of a giant windowless warehouse, all concrete; no detail anywhere. All the same monotonous shade of gray.

If this is Juu-chan's mind, he thought, it must be some kind of blank slate. Either that or Gero took it…

A loud female scream interrupted his thoughts; young, he guessed around six or seven, and blood-curdling.

Around the corner he saw a half-materialized little girl with bright, warm blue eyes, long blond pigtails, a green dress with a white Peter Pan collar, and what appeared to be white socks and black shoes. Her face wore an expression of absolute fear, and her little sometimes-there-sometimes-not legs were running as if she were being chased by a horde of demons after her soul.

She stopped a moment to catch her breath, and saw Kuririn standing not ten feet from her.

Again she started to run, this time towards Kuririn, her eyes wide in desperation.

"Mister," she panted, "can you help me?" A tear dripped from her left eye.

"What's the matter?" Kuririn patted the little girl's head.

She leaned into Kuririn's T-shirt and started to cry. "They-they're chasing me, mister, and they want to kill me…and I don't know where my brother is and I'm lost and alone and scared…help me!"

"I'll help." Kuririn was quite moved by the little girl's plea. "What's your name?"

"M-Miki," she stuttered, her voice not yet overcoming her crying spell.

"Who's chasing you?"

"They are."

"Who are 'they'?"

"You'll know them when you see them." Miki looked Kuririn in the eye. "Trust me, mister…Maybe I can take you to my drawing corner, that's where I go get my anger out." With that, Miki ran to a small enclave in the "building".

Kuririn was astonished by what he saw…

Crude, childlike drawings of Dr. Gero. Cyborg plans taped to the floor. A dark figure he didn't recognize…

"Whaddya think?" Miki grinned.

"I-Impressive!" Kuririn put his hand behind and giggled.

"Shh, you're too loud. They might hear you and try to kill you too."

"I understand. Now where do we go from here?"

"Dunno, I usually trust my gut." The six-year-old image of Juuhachigoo's human psyche pulled Kuririn towards a destination in the "warehouse" he knew not of….

END CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3- What will Kuririn and Miki discover next?


	3. Rewind

Mental 03: Rewind 

a DBZ fanfiction by LadyRivka

A/N: Rev. Vampyre picked up on something in his last review. "Miki just FITS." Actually, in all of my jinzoo-ningen stories, I gave the human twins the first names of their seeyuu (Nakahara Shigeru for #17 and Itoo Miki for #18, respectively). Thanks for noticing!!!

-Rivka

Now, on with the story!

"Which direction is your gut pulling you, Miki-chan?" asked Kuririn nervously as he was pulled around by the six-year-old.

"This way. I think something good is here. We may be safe." Miki grabbed Kuririn and scaled the wall.

Before Kuririn knew it, the floor was the ceiling and vice versa.

"How...how did you…?"

"I wanted to. It's my sanctuary."

"Oh." Kuririn exhaled, relieved.

"Now we go this way. I can sense my mom and my dad and my brother someplace close by…"

"Where?"

"There," Miki pointed to a spot not twenty feet from where they were standing.

"I don't see…" The figures of a man, a woman, and a boy surrounding a kitchen table with a large birthday cake behind them suddenly materialized out of nowhere.

"Miki-chan, honey, you're late!" cooed the mother. "Shigeru has just started to open his presents already."

"Sorry, Mommy."

"Well, I'm certain you didn't want to miss your seventh birthday, sweetie," boomed her father. "Else Shigeru-kun's going to get all the cake."

"Stupid brother. Stupid twin brother."

"Don't call your brother names, dear. Just because you're six minutes older than he is doesn't reserve you the right to call him names."

"Yes, Mommy." Miki sighed.

Kuririn just stood there. The boy, her brother, was just a little moppet with a black bowl-cut and wide brown eyes- not the icy-eyed terror that Kuririn had seen him grow up to be. He decided to watch the scene; the thought of Juuhachi actually being human underneath her cold exterior was endearing.

"Honey, we've got a surprise for you out back. It's a really big present, and Mommy and I couldn't wrap it up."

"Close your eyes, sweetheart," cooed her mother.

"Mister, you wanna come too?" Miki shouted towards Kuririn.

"Sure, why not?"

And so he followed the family about fifty yards ahead, where, in front of him, materialized a horse, a beautiful Arabian Quarter Horse.

"Open your eyes, honey," cooed her mother.

"It's-it's a horsie! I always wanted a horsie! Thank you! Thank you!" Miki hugged her mother's leg…

And her family faded out of the picture as abruptly as they had faded in.

Miki screamed. "Where's my mom and my dad and Shigeru-kun?"

Kuririn sensed her panic as he walked towards her and held her. "I don't know."

The horse turned to look at them both with its gentle brown eyes, trusting, nurturing.

But then, out of the ceiling, seven sharp meat-cleavers came down and sawed the poor beast into sections, like an art exhibit. Its blood spilled all over the floor, and the monk and the little girl could still see its heart beat, its dissected lungs breathe, and its guts squirm inside of it.

Again, Miki screamed."HOOOOOORSIIIIIEEEE!!!!!"

Kuririn's face was pale. What kind of person would do such a thing to her? To that horse? To any living being?

Then, behind the dissected horse, came a dark shadow of a female figure.

She cooed to both of them, coldly:

"Isn't it fun to kill things? Tell me it's fun to kill things, Miki. Tell me or I'll kill you."

"Mister…what do we do…?"

"Hold on tight, Miki-chan. We're running. To someplace safe."

"O-o-okay…." She gripped his t-shirt with an iron fist as he ran to an apparently "clear" portion of the warehouse…

END CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER  4- The dark forces fool around some more.


	4. Dominion

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Mental

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04: Dominion

a DBZ fanfiction by LadyRivka

Kuririn had raced into an empty corridor, Miki grabbing tightly to him, her face buried in his shirt.

Kuririn, trying to catch his breath, whispered, "You…you can… stop hiding now. It's all right. No one's going to hurt you."

She looked him in the face, and stuttered, "H-how do you know? Every time I want to go somewhere there are creepy people after me. You don't know…"

"You've got me, don't worry."

"But…but these people…are…kind of part of me. They won't go away, they _won't_!" Miki again sobbed into Kuririn's T-shirt.

"What do you mean?"

"A long time ago, it was just me in here. There were windows, places to play, my brother. Then I remember them invading here…and I can't get rid of them. I can't. Get. Rid. Of. Them." Her body shook in fear.

Just then, Kuririn saw the shadow lady from earlier sneaking up behind Miki with a large Bowie knife.

She slowly brought it to the young girl's throat…

"Join with me. Admit we are the same person. Else it's bye-bye time…" Miki stared down at the knife pressed against her jugular and started to scream.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

"God, how I love to hear little girls scream. And that **big strong man** you're with can't save you. Tsk, tsk," she purred evilly, sadistically.

"Get away from me!!" screamed the six-year-old.

"I can't," the dark lady smirked as she pressed the knife tighter against her throat.

Ready and able to slit it at any second…

But she didn't.

"Kid, I just wanted to see you scream like that. It's sooo adorable. Now I have to go, see ya round." She coldly walked away.

"Thank God she didn't kill you, Miki-chan." Kuririn sighed with relief.

"But I'm scared….scared that she will. Someday. She's been teasing me ever since her and her boss came in here. I hate it." Tears fell down Miki's cheeks.

"Who is her boss?"

"You'll see him, he's a creepy-lookin' old man…he's very deadly. Name's G-Ge-" Miki broke down in a hysterical crying fit. She did not want to say the mad scientist's name aloud, for fear it would call him, like a demon, to the place that they were now.

"Doctor Gero?!?"

Miki lept up. "Shhh…do you want him to know where we are?"

"No."

"Then don't say his name!"

But it was too late. In front of them materialized the fear of all fears…

Doctor Gero.

He walked towards Miki and glared, his cold cybernetic eyes meeting her natural blue ones.

Miki, although she was trying to fight back, floated in midair.

Kuririn watched her age into an eighteen-year-old, with the same blonde bob as #18. She wore a green sweater, a short black skirt, and the same Mary Janes she had had when younger. The detail Kuririn couldn't keep his eyes off of was the fact that Miki was fitted with two leg braces, and was seated in a wheelchair.

Gero's gaze met the floor, and Miki's wheelchair touched down.

"Good evening, my dark lady," he cackled. "Or…soon-to-be dark lady. The perfect assassin, you. And your brother as well. And you'll get rid of those dehumanizing braces if you join me. It's a futile battle."

"Bull shit, I won't!"

"I already have your brother, isn't that the ammunition you need, Miki?" Gero smirked.

Miki froze with fear.

"Oh, so you're silent? Maybe I will come back when you're able to talk." He de-materialized and Miki and Kuririn breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where do we go next?"

"I don't know, there are so few places to hide. I wish I knew…" Miki decided to randomly push her wheelchair around the warehouse, with Kuririn following her.

END CHAPTER 4

Chapter 5- Gero gets TRULY evil…


	5. Pain

Mental 05: Pain 

a Dragonball Z fanfiction by Rivka Aes Sedai, Green Ajah (LadyRivka)

A/N: Thank you to Sakura no Tenshii for reviewing this. One chapter, and it's good! (yr review, that is). -Rivka

Miki was rolling her wheelchair about, not trying to go in any specific direction. Kuririn was following her, steadfastly, trying to protect her from danger, especially in the state she was now in.

Thoughts plagued him. What if Gero was sick enough to rape the poor girl, especially when there was no way in Hell she could even attempt to escape him? What if she ended up being a prisoner in her own mind, her sanctuary, as she had called it earlier?

Miki stared up at him, her blue eyes glistening.

"What's your name? I never bothered to learn your name, sir…"

"Kuririn," said the ex-monk, surprised that she didn't know him.

"Odd, that name sounds familiar to me, but I never had a face to go with it."

"Really?" Kuririn scratched his head.

"Yes. Maybe I don't remember everything…"

"How so?"

"Some of the memories belong to the Dark Lady when she moved in here. I have yet to access them."

"Hmmm, interesting." Kuririn posed like a certain Rodin statue.

While her traveling companion was lost in thought, Miki rolled her chair forward ever-so-slightly about the warehouse corridor…

And the wheels stopped, as if by a force yet to be understood by the human mind.

And Miki bent over and yelped in pain…underneath the braces, her legs began to spasm and it felt like her bones were being broken and her spine was snapping again…

The yelp turned into a scream, a terrifying scream, as the pain engulfed the poor girl.

Kuririn ran toward her, to see if he could help in any way.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"D-does it…look…like…I'm all right?"

"Jeez, no need to get snappy."

"I-I'm in…a lot…of…painnn…" Her teeth gritted as she spoke.

A male voice sounded above them, devoid of emotion.

Dr. Gero.

"Miki, it is only proper that you remember this. Old wounds will never heal, I will make sure of that. I need you to feel the pain you went through in the car accident when you were but an eleven-year-old girl. You lost your mother then…Do you remember?"

"H-How do you…know…you sick…bastard?"

"I have my ways. The Dark Lady is my informant of sorts…"

"S-stop this!" Miki spit.

"No, I will not. The more pain you are in, the more I enjoy this little game. Surrender to me or else! Become my dark lady, become your mirror image. Or else she will kill you."

Kuririn could take no more. "I'm going to find you, you sadist jackass! Miki doesn't deserve this! She doesn't!!"

"Oh, such pity. I do not have pity for the girl or her brother. That's why humankind is so god-damn pathetic. Feelings. They weaken you," Gero hissed.

Kuririn knew what he was speaking of. Ideally, _jinzoo-ningen_ were not to have feelings, just programming. To serve their creators unflinchingly, be they android or cyborg types.

And he saw Miki, the human side of #18, fighting a losing battle, just because she would not give up her ability to feel…

Kuririn screamed. "STOP IT, DR. GERO!!"

To which came the reply:

"If you want me to cease, weakling, you have to find me in this jumbled labyrinth…"

"Y-yes," stuttered Kuririn.

He pushed Miki, still in extreme pain, out of the alcove and into the main part of the warehouse.

END CHAPTER 5

Chapter 6: More sadistic Gero stuff…and maybe some more with Dark Lady.


	6. Paranoia

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Mental

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06: Paranoia

a DBZ fanfiction by Rivka Aes Sedai of the Green Ajah (aka LadyRivka)

No author's notes this time…except thank you to Aerith Gainesborough for plugging this fic!!

They looked around, the ex-monk and the crippled teenager, to find nothing.

The warehouse now seemed eerily empty…but they knew who was out there. Who was lurking in the shadows. Who wanted the blonde girl dead.

Dr. Gero. To name him brought unspeakable nightmares into this place, a taint on #18's mind. And the Dark Lady, his servant.

Kuririn crept slowly about the main area of the warehouse, pushing Miki in front of him. She looked up at him, her eyes seeming just as innocent and frightened as they were when she was a little girl in pigtails.

"Where..is..he…?" she whispered.

"I can't sense him," shrugged Kuririn. Ki in this place, inside of someone else's mind, was hard to trace and even harder to use. You had to survive by your wits.

"Then what's the use of us trying to find him?"

"Are you saying this is futile?" Kuririn screamed. "I'm trying to save your life here!"

"Don't know if you can," she shrugged.

"MIKI!!!!" he snapped. "What the hell are you thinking?"

"I've been here longer than you have. Save your heroics." Miki pushed her chair away from Kuririn, into the next alcove.

Kuririn moaned and slumped down to the floor.

--

Miki turned the corner, to find a long-haired male figure standing there, slouching over, as if bored and expecting something…

Or someone.

"Shi-Shigeru-kun? That you?" she giggled. She knew her brother anywhere.

The figure moved closer to her. It looked like her brother, but it had this aura of coldness about it…

And the eyes. Almond-shaped, silver-blue, inhuman, in contrast to the warm brown eyes she had known all of her life.

"Sh-Shigeru??"

"I am not he who you speak of. However, a part of me recognizes you as my sister. You must join me. Come with me, and you will have infinite power thanks to Dr. Gero."

"No!"

"Tsk, tsk. Always taking the hard way out." Then, with one deft punch, the hybrid known as #17 knocked Miki out cold and dragged her behind him to where Gero was lurking.

Kuririn was still squatting on the floor, scared. He had fought Frieza, one of the most tyrannical beings to ever live; what was he cowering about? For Kami's sake, he was in a girl's mind!! Not on some battlefield! 

So why was he so scared?

Interrupting his thoughts was Miki's wheelchair, rolling out of an alcove not twenty feet from him…

Empty.

And behind him materialized Dark Lady. He did not know this until the same Bowie knife pressed to Miki's neck earlier was pressed to his….

"I want my blood," she purred. "Miki isn't here, the nice doctor took her away. I guess in order for our plans to be executed, you must die…."

Kuririn gulped and tried sending a distress signal to Bulma via the EEG….

END CHAPTER 6

Chapter 7- Will Kuririn get out? Will Bulma pay attention? What about the villainy of #18's mind? How will I end this evil cliffhanger???


	7. Death

Mental

  


a DBZ fanfiction by Rivka Aes Sedai, Green Ajah (LadyRivka)

  


_07: Death_

  


Bulma was lazing around the laboratory, eating a chocolate-glazed donut. Frankly, she thought, with her talent, she shouldn't get any mistakes.

  


But then the EEG beeped, sharp spikes of brain waves showing up on the monitor. The donut fell from her mouth and onto the floor, leaving her open mouth dripping with saliva and crumbs.

  


She couldn't believe what the hell she was seeing.

  


"Ku-Kuririn? Are you all right?" were the first words to come out of her mouth. "It looks like a distress signal. Maybe we should bring you back."

  


Kuririn's head managed to shake a slight "no" on the table.

  


"I see. So you want to go down with the best of them? I guess I'll leave you alone for now." Bulma sighed.

  


__

  


"YOU! GET THE FUCKING HELL AWAY FROM ME!!!" Kuririn screamed.

  


"Aha. First the blood, now the screams. Ever so bittersweet, wouldn't you say?" Dark Lady circled around his neck with the knife, watching his panicked eyes.

  


As quickly as his reflexes would allow, Kuririn knocked the knife out of the Dark Lady's hand, and ran, ran for his life. He saw the empty wheelchair, and just knew he had to find Dr. Gero before #18's mind would turn into a desolate wasteland.

  


He walked down corridors, aimlessly, his spirit not feeling anything.

  


Until...

  


A laboratory setting materialized in front of him. The mad doctor was holding Miki like a limp doll, a broken, bruised remnant of her former self. 

  


#17, smirking evilly, stood behind Gero.

  


"So, you want my sister, eh? You can't have her, you bastard!" #17 started lunging at Kuririn, but Gero stopped him.

  


"Not now. When the time is right. We have preparations to make."

  


"Of course, Doctor," said the cyborg, sarcasm oozing through his voice.

  


"Now get back in your pod!"

  


"Yes, sir." #17 smirked.

  


The pod marked "17" opened, and the male cyborg stepped in.

  


Phew, thought Kuririn.

  


But then, in front of him, materialized Dark Lady.

  


"Are you ready, Doctor? I need Miki in my hands. She is to be loyal to you at all times, as am I."

  


"Of course. She will be like you, a Lilith, a lady of the night." With that, Gero grabbed a syringe of anesthetic and injected into her arm.

  


Oh, no! They're-they're going to cyborgate Miki! Kuririn could barely watch as Gero opened her up, hacked away at her bones and organs, and put cybernetic devices in their place.

  


"Phase One, complete," he sighed as he stitched the girl back up.

  


Miki awakened on the operating table...to discover she had purely metal legs, covered with a synthetic skin-like material.

  


"Get up and walk! Did I not promise you you would walk?"

  


"Yes, but where is my brother?" Her voice became pleading, urgent.

  


"You will know him when you see him, Miki," cackled the scientist.

  


Miki turned around.

  


There were her flesh-and-blood legs, still in the braces, severed, bloody, and floating in midair for all to see.

  


Miki screamed, and Kuririn almost threw up.

  


One word escaped Gero's lips.

  


"Beautiful..."

  


END CHAPTER 7

  


A/N: Lilith- a female demon in Judaic legend, said to steal the souls of infants in their sleep, and to become pregnant with incubi and succubi by the semen of men who masturbate or withdraw during sex.

  
  
  
  


Chapter 8- Can Kuririn save Miki?? Or is Fate too tangled? .


	8. Machine

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Mental

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08: Machine

a DBZ fanfiction by Rivka Aes Sedai, Green Ajah

Gero turned towards the girl, now standing wobbly on her cybernetic legs.

"Are not those lovely?" He pointed to her severed human legs, still floating.

"You're disgusting, Dr. Gero!" Kuririn yelled as he managed to keep from throwing up. "If I could, I'd damn you to the lowest pits of Hell!"

"Oho, a smart-mouth," cooed Dark Lady. "Obviously you do not know what the doctor is planning for the girl. She is to be fine-tuned…made perfect, in my image. Poetry in motion, you might say."

Kuririn growled. "She is not a machine, damn you! She is a person and should be treated as such."

"Nonsense!" cackled Gero. "All human beings are simply elaborate machines. All one has to do is recalibrate their structure, and they will serve. Input is all that matters if you make the human machine give the correct output." He smirked coldly as Miki fell onto the cold warehouse floor as her cybernetic legs gave way. "Tsk, tsk. This one needs work, wouldn't you say?" He nodded to Dark Lady.

"A little too much work if she is to be in my image, Doctor." Dark Lady cackled.

"True, but there is a way." Gero smirked, an icy smirk that cut through Kuririn's soul like a machete and made Miki convulse on the floor. The scientist lifted her convulsing body by the nape of her neck, and whispered:

"Isn't that so, girl?"

"NOOO!" she screamed.

"Face it, bitch," the doctor hissed, "I have your legs. It will not be long before I possess the rest of you. Like I did your brother. You are just a machine, girl. Forget all that bullshit people have told you about the existence of souls, of human feelings, of the duality of brain and mind. It is all a lie. You are just a machine…"

"I AM NOT!" Miki retorted. "And you won't use me!"

Dark Lady ran up to the two of them, enraged. "I'm sorry, but he will use you. I am you are me. There is no way around that fact." With that, the cybernetic minion determined to own this concrete playground punched Miki out cold.

"No…" Kuririn muttered, his face in his hands. "No, you can't!"

---

Bulma was drinking a strawberry-banana smoothie when the EEG went into the signature danger pattern again.

And from Kuririn's place on the bed, she hear a faint "No…"

She brought the bed down from the ceiling. "Kuririn? Are you okay?"

No answer.

"KURIRIN!" Bulma shook him frantically.

His eyelids slowly opened. "Bu-Bulma?"

"Yes, it's me. Are you in any sort of danger in #18's mind?"

"Yes. I feel that if something doesn't happen, and fast, #18 will return to the denizen of destruction she was designed to be. She deserves better than that."

"I know. The adjustment to a human role in society must have pushed her over the edge to begin with. I suggest we put the machine in reverse, so that #18 can enter your mind. It's a long shot, but it may be the only way. Now close your eyes, regulate your brain waves, and go back in there."

"Yes."

He closed his eyes, not sure of the uncertainties he would face…

END CHAPTER 8

Chapter 9- Can Kuririn help Miki inside of his own mind?


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